$700,000 grant to help reduce feral cat population

Updated 10:15 pm, Monday, May 7, 2012

PetSmart Charities and Best Friends Animal Society are collaborating with the city to reduce the breeding of free-roaming cats with a $700,000, three-year grant.

The partners announced the Community Cats Project Monday morning at City Hall with Mayor Julián Castro, City Manager Sheryl Sculley, and Animal Care Services staff.

The Best Friends grant, provided through PetSmart Charities, will fund the project, which will focus on reducing the euthanizing of free-roaming cats by 25 percent through the use of the trap-neuter-return method.

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SpaySA will provide vaccinations against rabies and sterilizations by a licensed veterinarian.

The partners are also aiming to reduce the number of cats euthanized at local shelters to zero, said Gregory Castle, chief executive officer of Best Friends Animal Society.

“Best Friends believes that this community of San Antonio can make big progress in this area,” Castle said. “We've done this in other cities and the participation of the city is absolutely vital. And that's very strong here.”

Involving the city in the TNR process has always been a key to saving feral cats, said Jenny Burgess, executive director of the coalition. She said addressing the outdoor cat population is a key to the city achieving its no-kill goal.

“It is truly historic; it's the first injection of money of this sort that's going to catapult TNR into the forefront of people's understanding,” Burgess said.

Joe Angelo, interim director of ACS, said the city was grateful to the groups for making the project possible.

“This is an opportunity for ACS and the city of San Antonio to get that much closer to becoming a no-kill city,” Angelo said.

“We're going to be targeting 3,500 cats to be trapped, neutered or spayed and returned back to the community. This will have a positive outcome for cats that may not otherwise happen,” he said.

Angelo said the project would also offer residents the opportunity to volunteer with the coalition and Best Friends Society to support the TNR program.